You buried the most important part of your post at the bottom.

I remember seeing science fiction stuff where when people reach a certain age, that's it. Congratulations, you lived a great life, let's celebrate...you're done. Not fair? Life is not fair. As poker players we all know that's true. I'm not advocating for that sort of concept...some people get really old and have great senior years. That's terrific, but not everyone does. Some elders really become a burden upon their families. I don't think shutting everything down so when I'm exposed there might be a ventilator available for me is the proper response to this or any virus. Unfortunately, as the world population grows unchecked this type of event is going to happen more and more often. Nature has a way...

The greater good, railbird. Let's destroy the world as we know it because old people might get sick? Really? People are going to get sick! Do the common sense things. Stay home when you're sick. Wash your hands. Live healthy lifestyles. I know we all have opinions...but to me shutting everything down for weeks and months is nonsense and is only going to make things worse.

i think you underestimate how recently polio was a huge concern for Americans.The vaccine didn't come out until the early 1950s.

these scumbag politicans need to tell the scumbag casinos to eat ****

Assuming you play poker and have at least a basic grasp of simple math lets look at some numbers.

Let's assume low end numbers given what we know. Let's assume all of the predictions by doctors are massively too high. There are 9 million people in NYC. There are 5,000 hospital beds and 3,000 ICU units - total - in all of NYC. If we do nothing, as you suggest, and treat it as a flu, virtually everyone will get sick. But lets say, miraculously, only 25% of the people get sick. That's ~2 million people. Let's say of those 2 million people, only 2% of them require hospitalization (which is 1/10th of the 20% doctors say require it). That's 40,000 people who require hospitalization. Let's say all those people don't get sick at once, and say only 20,000 get sick right away. That's 4x the number of available hospital beds and ICU units that are available. That's thousands of people who will needlessly die simply because hospitals are overwhelmed.

All that assumes only fractions of the numbers we've seen in Italy in regards to infections and required hospitalizations! Its simply a matter of math. Even at the very low end of predictions our minimal medical resources are going to be massively overwhelmed. Its insanely ignorant to pretend this is just another flu and it will be no big deal.

OK, to help you understand the thing you overlook in the above, they are looking for a cure, and estimate it will take 12 - 18 months to get one. So once that is found life can go back to normal, until then we need social distancing.

Therefore it is not just this WSOP under consideration, but the next one too. After that, assuming a cure is found 12 - 18 months, the WSOP can carry on for any survivors of coronavirus.

If they bail out casinos then they need to bail out every restaurant and bar in the states of Oregon and Washington because those businesses can no longer allow customers to eat inside their buildings.

I'm not going to begin to argue with your math, FB. Or anyone's math. I think it is all based on guesses. Some of them may be educated guesses, but that is for statisticians to consider LATER. What happened in China and Iran and Italy MIGHT happen in the USA. Maybe not. What we know as a fact is that we have an aging population that already greatly exceeds sustainability. There is no way we will have the resources on our planet to support the exponential population growth that we have experienced over the most recent time period. When this happens, people die. Sometimes via pandemics, catastrophes, natural disasters, national emergencies...this is going to continue to happen at an increasing rate. The world does not have the ability at this point to create an unlimited supply of water or land or fossil fuels. Regardless of whether we choose to live inside going forward or not. Climate change is realized and considered and accepted by most with a brain, but has the world done enough to respond? Is there any meaningful effort to attempt to control population growth? All I hear is the premise that growth is a needed and fundamental ingredient for economic success. This matters to the current discussion as all of these realities are related. A reactionary shutdown of societal structure will lead to economic collapse. Governments can't possibly afford to bail out everyone who will be impacted by the shutdown. People's lives and livelihoods will be destroyed by this ridiculous knee jerk, fear based self quarantining. Do we have faith the government will bail out the truly needy? Will any bailouts simply go to the politically connected? Yes, perhaps for a few weeks or maybe a month there will be a shortage of ventilators for every single sick old person due to this particular strain. At some point we have to think about the greater good. Seriously, as we have clearly seen, these things are going to keep coming, and they are going to get stronger. It isn't that I don't care...I sincerely do. We should try to do a much better job of being prepared and coordinating our responses. I think the complete shutdown to flatten the curve is a horrible idea that will have far reaching, negative ramifications that could be avoided.

By all means, Jay Why, please self quarantine, live in fear and put everything in your life on hold for 12-18 months. I want to actually be alive, and live my life to the fullest. Enjoy every possible minute I can to the best of my ability. Try to live sustainably and leave no trace. Do my part to make the world a better place, and try to help those in need whenever I can. I see a lot of people in need on a regular basis, and a lot of people who will have their lives and existences destroyed by this shutdown. It isn't worth it.

Sheldon Adelson might get a Trump buyout, but the people and families who lost jobs this week might get a few bucks that trickle down from legislation, but it won't be enough.

LOOOOOL

That's like the oil companies asking for a bailout (wouldn't be surprised), big pharma asking for a bailout, tobacco asking for a bailout, big alcohol companies asking for a bailout.

If they do get a bailout then the government should bail out every single gambler and poker player in America as well (whether or not they are winning players or losing players; because winning players can't play right now either unless they play illegal home games or something)!!!

Fear-based decisions definitely aren't ideal.

Unless the fear supports your position, I guess?

Yes, that's pretty clear. That's why the professionals are in charge - they understand the situation better than either of us.

I’ve been surprised by the above. As casino’s are desperately trying to stay open by offering things like 3 handed games it is in fact the poker community that is shaming them with online responses to these announcements. I hadn’t anticipated this.

Sure there must be degens that are desperate for these games to be run but I haven’t seen a single response from a poker player supporting a casino staying open. In fact it’s overwhelmingly to the contrary. Poker players are repeatedly coming out of the woodwork posting lengthy messages of praise to every casino or tournament operator/league that is shutting down their games. I’ve seen this over and over again.

To me it really feels like players are relieved to not have a game to go to and I’ve read posts where players more or less say this....’I would have definitely played if you were running this tournament but congrats on cancelling it’ is something I just read now....as if the person had no self control.

All this got me thinking - are players actually so addicted to the game that they’re thankful that they’re being helped to exclude themselves? I say this because I think I may fall into this category.

I look forward to playing all the time.....every single day I think about when I can play next. I look forward to big tournament series like nothing else and have been counting down the days to WSOP since I booked flights and accommodation a couple of months ago. Now that everything is shutting down and WSOP is pretty much gone I’m surprised that I’m not even really disappointed. I know I’ll play again but I’m not even fussed when. Someone else (or nature) has determined I can’t play and I’m kind of ok with it. And I’m surprised I feel this way. I know that if big tournaments were running and I couldn’t play I’d feel hugely agitated and desperate to play. Now that they’re not, I’m ok.

Addiction is obviously heavily associated with gambling and I can’t help but wonder if the fact that I’ve seen such a positive reaction from poker players to games being shutdown isn’t something to do with players feeling a sense of personal relief much more so than a vote of support for a casino or tournament operator doing the right thing by the general community.

Your grandparents were called to war, you are called to sit on a couch.
You can do it!

This a pretty cool simulation of a pandemic. Not sure if posted before, if so I apologize
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...ona-simulator/

I was never good at sitting on the couch for months. You guys can continue to quote the fact that I do not believe isolation and social distancing and shutting everything down makes sense. It does not make sense. Flattening the curve is not worth the destruction it will cause. I read that the economic destruction caused by this ill-fated policy might be equivalent to $1,000,000 per death. Y'all can continue to be afraid and hide out if you want to. Then do the same when next year's flu hits. You certainly will have enough time on your hands. Again, at some point, the greater good has to come into play. As people freak out, lose their jobs, go crazy, commit crime and fight over toilet paper just about everyone is going to be exposed anyway.

Fascinating post, DH. I absolutely was looking forward to traveling and playing all day today and tomorrow...I don't think I'm addicted to poker/gambling, but I really do enjoy it. This was a thought provoking post. I would totally have played anyway and while I understand the reasons for the shutdown I do not support it and wish I were on my way to the tables.

Bobo I don't think the professionals have any idea in this instance and I do not trust them at all. We will see how it plays out but so far I think this episode has shown a clear lack of preparedness by politicians and a wild and short-sighted response from the CDC and others. Perhaps we will be better prepared going forward, but most of the professionals have botched this one.

I'm pretty sure most ppl here dont care abt getting sick;they care abt getting vulnerable family and community members sick. I am in that category
On the bright side as long as you're posting in nvg and not working on a vaccine or treatment we might be ok

Why don't we just all get together in a giant love fest so those pesky oldies and sickies can just hurry up and croak so you can get back to....what is it you do with your life again?

Sounds like it could be an interesting article, if it's well-written and has any basis in evidence. Do you have a link?

No question mistakes have been made, but I trust them on this topic more than you. Or me.

His point is that these shutdown policies are stupid because though they may potentially save hundreds of thousands/millions of lives in the long term, in the near term he can't go gamble.

This idea that saving lives has a cost comes up all the time, most frequently in transportation, where safety devices have a real world engineering cost. The official figure is called VSL (Value of a Saved Life) and is set at 9.6 million, so a million per would be a bargain

Who gives a ****? We don’t need to hear anymore about how you place your own inconvenience above the lives of others. You’ve made your viewpoint clear. Please stop making burner accounts and go away.

Let's hope so. But I am inclined to believe daily numbers are pretty inaccurate. And obviously the number of infected will largely be a factor of the number of tested which is highly variable. I would guess we will see lots of spikes and dips over the coming weeks as data is collected.

This x 100000.

There are all sorts of infectious diseases that kill people. I believe the last major polio outbreak in the US occurred in the early 1950's and killed less than 4000 people. In other words it was less than 1/3 as deadly as the H1N1 outbreak from 10 years ago that hardly registered a blip on the collective conscience of Americans and likely the world.

And quibbling about whether it has been 100 years or 70 years since Americans were concerned about infectious disease misses the point... at least my point. The truth is the majority of people alive in this country today have not worried about it until now.

I don't want to argue with the general point that vigilance and caution are important at this time and in response to this outbreak. But if you're going to throw number out, I think they need to be either accurate or based on something other than pure speculation.

According to this source, there are nearly 60,000 non-federal, short-term, acute care hospital beds in the state of NY.

https://www.ahd.com/states/hospital_NY.html

How many are in or around the vicinity of NYC? I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it is a substantial percentage. And this list does not even count federally funded locations, which are likely also fairly substantial.

With this many beds, will there still be a shortage of space and/or equipment if hundreds of thousands of people get intensely sick at the same time? That could happen, and I think is the major impetus behind the isolation efforts going on now.

That's an interesting theory. I'm guessing there are some psychiatrists among the posters here, along with all the virologists.

which recently banned account are you? your shtick sounds familiar but cant place it.

asking for myself.

Well, i think his actual point is that hundreds of thousands, or even millions of lives don't mean that much in the big picture, considering how many people die from infectious disease every year (10's of millions). I don't agree with him but he does make a pretty logical argument. The fact that he is upset because he "wants to gamble and can't" is kind of irrelevant. There are all sorts of things we all wish we could do now but can't, and that is upsetting. I don't see any purpose in making moral comparisons between those who want to go gambling, or those who wish they could go out to the movies, or a ballgame, or a restaurant, or meet with colleagues at a convention, or simply go to work and be productive as usual. Normal life is largely coming to a screeching halt and that has its own set of negative consequences.

And I have said before in other posts, there is a point at which the inoculation measures we are taking to try and prevent more deaths may be worse than the disease itself. Its hard to say whether we have reached that point yet, and it is likely something that can only be determined after the fact, if at all. But people are going to die from the measures being taken to prevent people from dying from the virus (stress-related illnesses cause far more deaths than infectious disease). And countless lives are going to be affected in a very negative fashion, even if they don't die from these measures.

The powers that be in government and the private sector, the ones who largely control what we can and cannot do on a day to day basis, have determined that these drastic measures are the best course of action at this time to lead to the best possible outcome. I have no idea if they will be proven right or not. And they could very well be wrong. Governance is not nearly a perfect science as we see time after time. But it seems to me, in the face of unpredictable and/or dire circumstances (whether they are caused by nature, or malevolent action, or simple incompetence) the best prescription for the rest of us is to do what our species is best at... adapt.